WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A massive solar eruption, more than 30 times
the length of Earth's diameter, blasted away from the sun on Monday,
and a satellite captured graphic images of the event.

Photos

Reuters Photo

The eruption occurred at 9:19 a.m. EDT and showed up in a picture
taken by one instrument of the SOHO satellite as a fiery-
looking "leg" in the lower-left corner of the image, scientists said
in a statement.

Pictures taken over the following 90 minutes by another SOHO
instrument show a loopy-looking eruption taking place and then
dispersing. All images are visible at the SOHO Web site, http://soho.nascom.nasa ( news - web sites).gov.

The "leg" is what astronomers call an eruptive prominence, which is a
loop of magnetic fields that trap hot gas inside. As this prominence
became unstable, it erupted into the area around the sun and appeared
to dissipate.

If eruptions like these are aimed at Earth, they can disturb Earth's
magnetosphere, but this one was not directed at our planet, a
spokesman for SOHO said by telephone.

SOHO -- short for Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- is run by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space
Agency.

> The recent and rather extended period of very quiet conditions is
> picking up a bit with the arrival of the CME that took off from the
> sun on 6/27. The solar wind speed and density are both elevated,

and

> the realtime aurora monitors look like there could be some aurora
> displays visible in the higher latitudes this evening. The
> geomagnetic field is in the active category for the first time in
> awhile. There's also a new and fast growing sunspot region on the
> scene. Sunspot region 19 has recently rotated into view, and it

This, again, matches well w/ the typhoon in the W. Pac. ... Monday, ... said ... a ... prominence ... appeared ... Earth s ... the ... Space ... the ... some

Message 2 of 5
, Jul 1, 2002

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This, again, matches well w/ the typhoon in the W. Pac.

--- In methanehydrateclub@y..., fredwx <no_reply@y...> wrote:
>
> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
> tmpl=story&ncid=585&e=1&cid=585&u=/nm/20020701/sc_nm/space_sun_dc_1
>
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A massive solar eruption, more than 30 times
> the length of Earth's diameter, blasted away from the sun on
Monday,
> and a satellite captured graphic images of the event.
>
> Photos
>
> Reuters Photo
>
>
> The eruption occurred at 9:19 a.m. EDT and showed up in a picture
> taken by one instrument of the SOHO satellite as a fiery-
> looking "leg" in the lower-left corner of the image, scientists
said
> in a statement.
>
> Pictures taken over the following 90 minutes by another SOHO
> instrument show a loopy-looking eruption taking place and then
> dispersing. All images are visible at the SOHO Web site,
> http://soho.nascom.nasa ( news - web sites).gov.
>
> The "leg" is what astronomers call an eruptive prominence, which is
a
> loop of magnetic fields that trap hot gas inside. As this
prominence
> became unstable, it erupted into the area around the sun and
appeared
> to dissipate.
>
> If eruptions like these are aimed at Earth, they can disturb
Earth's
> magnetosphere, but this one was not directed at our planet, a
> spokesman for SOHO said by telephone.
>
> SOHO -- short for Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- is run by
the
> National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European
Space
> Agency.
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In methanehydrateclub@y..., "b1blancer_29501" <b1blancer1@e...>
> wrote:
> > The recent and rather extended period of very quiet conditions is
> > picking up a bit with the arrival of the CME that took off from
the
> > sun on 6/27. The solar wind speed and density are both elevated,
> and
> > the realtime aurora monitors look like there could be some aurora
> > displays visible in the higher latitudes this evening. The
> > geomagnetic field is in the active category for the first time in
> > awhile. There's also a new and fast growing sunspot region on the
> > scene. Sunspot region 19 has recently rotated into view, and it
> looks
> > like it has flare generating potential. A small coronal hole has
> > formed in advance of sunspot region 19, and it could be sending
some
> > high speed solar wind gusts out way later on in the week.
> >
> > The current solar and geomagenetic conditions are :
> >
> > NOAA sunspot number : 111
> > SFI : 147
> > A index : 12
> > K index : 4
> >
> > Solar wind speed : 387.3 km/sec
> > Solar wind density : 4.9 protons/cc
> > Solar wind pressure : 1.2 nPa
> >
> > IMF : 8.7 nT
> > IMF Orientation : 7.1 nT North
> >
> > Conditions for the last 24 hours :
> > No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours.
> >
> > Forecast for the next 24 hours :
> > No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours.
> >
> > Solar activity forecast :
> > Solar activity is expected to continue at low levels. There is a
> > chance for an isolated M-class flare from Regions 17 and 19.
> >
> > Geomagnetic activity forecast :
> > The geomagnetic field is expected to continue at quiet to
unsettled
> > levels with isolated active periods during local nighttime hours.
> >
> > Recent significant solar flare activity :
> > None

pawnfart

I hadn t lately checked on the McKenzie river research on the Methanogens--where they are coring several thousand feet down where methanogens were found.

Message 3 of 5
, Jul 1, 2002

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I hadn't lately checked on the McKenzie river research on the
Methanogens--where they are coring several thousand feet down where
methanogens were found. Interestingly, some of these microbes have
the ability to slow their metabolism down and only have cell division
on hundred year time scales! There is a reported metablism potential
to go the other way out of site. I wonder what even in the past year
scientific discovery has brought us--certainly a better understanding
of this microbrial habitat. The comment below about the biosphere
that is being discussed as at least equal to the terrosphere boggles
the mind. The link below is interesting:

"This deep biosphere must play a fundamental role in global
biogeochemical cycles over both short and longer time scales because
its mass is approximately comparable to that of the surface biosphere
(Whiteman et al., 1998; Pedersen, 2000).

The presence of viable methanogens within subsurface sediments points
to the potential for in situ generation of microbial gas (Colwell et
al., 1999). The investigated core revealed a gradient in the isotopic
composition of the included gas from its top to base with several
transitions zones (Lorenson et al., 1999). The upper section above
the base of ice-bonded permafrost (600 m) was mainly dominated by
biogenic gas, whereas this gas was thought to be diluted by
thermogenic gas with increasing depth. A distinct transition zone at
the lower part of the permafrost area indicates that the ice-bonded
permafrost may have acted as a partial seal, impeding gas migration
and the mixing of microbially generated gas from above and the flux
of thermal gas from below. Below the permafrost boundary, both gas
wetness and isotopic composition suggest a mixing of microbial and
thermogenic gas, but with a distinct dominance of the latter.
Nevertheless the still observable in-situ microbial gas production
points to the existence of a deep microbial community of methanogenic
bacteria. The highest gas yield can be observed from ca 900 m to 1110
m in the zone of gas hydrate stability. The Mallik gas hydrate zone
seems to trap mainly thermogenic gas and with that to act as a
partial barrier to gas migration from below. The existence of
bacterial populations (Colwell et al., 1999), biogenic methane and a
gas hydrate zone (Lorenson et al., 1999) in deeper parts of the
Mallik sites bears a promising opportunity that anaerobic processes
like methanogenesis or AOM are important metabolic pathways in a deep
biosphere community especially near the gas hydrate zone, which can
be utilized as a carbon source."

We think we have biosphere, climate, fossil fuel issues now--wait til
man, in his infinite stupidity, begins to mess with this part of the
biosphere.

b1blancer_29501

... Don t get to excited over it, Pawn. Geomagnetic-wise, it was a non-event. It looks like it did launch a CME, but it wasn t earth-directed. It sure makes

Message 4 of 5
, Jul 1, 2002

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--- In methanehydrateclub@y..., "pawnfart" <mike@u...> wrote:

> This, again, matches well w/ the typhoon in the W. Pac.
>

Don't get to excited over it, Pawn. Geomagnetic-wise, it was a
non-event. It looks like it did launch a CME, but it wasn't
earth-directed. It sure makes for a darned impressive picture,
though. Wow!!

It looks like it erupted pretty close to sunspot region 19. This
could be a sign of interesting things to come as that sunspot group
rotates into an earth-pointing position. There wasn't a significant
flare associated with the event, however.

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